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1 38 Credibilily of the Gospel History.
Samosata. I see no good reason to dispute Jerom's account
and the piece shows its author; Malchion Mas a sophist, and
the epistle is a common place of accusation.
We have no certain account of any other works of Malchion,
beside the disputation and epistle just mentioned.
Jerom mentions these two only, without so much as hintingthere
were any other. Trithemius indeed says that Malchion
composed several excellent Avorks of great use against
heretics ; but that is a mere flourish : he mentions none by
name but the two we have taken notice of already.
3. There is nothing- now remaining- of Malchion that can
be depended on as genuine, beside the fragments of the
synod ical epistle in Eusebius, of which I gave a large account"
formerly. It has been observed by"' several learned
men, that Leontius of Byzantium, who lived near the end of
the sixth century, has quoted tM op passages of the Disputation
or conference with Paul : but Du Pin says ifi is not
altogether certain that they are genuine. Tillemonf^ observes
likewise, that there is a passage out of it in the letter of Peter
the deacon to Fulgentius, and other African bishops ; which
Peter flourished in the same sixth century, but earlier than
Leontius above named ; it is only a part of ^ what is cited by
Leontius. I have not made any use of these fragments m my
history of Paul' formerly given; nor do T intend now to
take any thing" out of them.
Trithemius expresseth himself as" if that Disputation was
in being in his time: but^ Fabricius well observes, in a note
upon him, that those words mean no more than that it was
extant in the time of Jerom, not of Trithemius. The same
observation, I suppose, ought to be applied to'" Bede in the
eighth, and^ Freculph in the ninth century; who likewise
speak of this piece as extant in their times : but they only
transcribe Jerom ; and it is he in all these places, who is to
be understood to say it >vas then extant, that is, in his time.
If the citations of Leontius and Peter the deacon are not
to be relied upon, then we have not any certain notice of this
" Edidit nonnuUa praeclara opuscula, quee suo tempore ad fidei christianae
defensionem contra haereticos multiiin conducere videbantur. Trithem. de Scr.
Ec. cap. 45. " Vol. ii. ch. xliii. ° Fabric, ut supra.
Vales, ut supr. Tillera. ib. p. 630. p Vid. Baluz. ConcU. p. 19 22.
•I Mais il n'est pas entierement certain, qu'ils fussent veritables. Du Pin, in
Malchion, as above, p. 193. Tillem. ubi supr. p. 629.
' Vid. Baluz. Cone. p. 21. ' Vol. ii. ch. xliii.
" Dc quibus exstat opus insigne Dialogorum contra Paulum Samosatenum.
Trithem. ut supr. " Extabat Hieronymi tempore, noa
Trithemii. Fabric. " Vid. Bed. Chr. p. 22. Cantabr. 1722.
" Freculp. Chr. T. iii. 1. iii. c. 11. ap. Bib.Patr. Tom. xiv. p. 1166. D.
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